Debuff Master

[We will be fighting the Genesis Guild soon.]

[This could be our first and last battle with them.]

[All guild members willing to participate should come to the guild headquarters.]

The guild member hunting in a dungeon, the one leisurely farming in his fields, the one feeling anxious in front of an Enhancement Machine, the one testing his skills in the arena, and the numerous other guild members spread across the continent enjoying the game through their own ways saw Siegfried\'s message.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“Mickey! Can you look after my fields? I have to go somewhere!”

“Alright! +13! Wait for me, you bastards! Kekeke!”

“I guess this will be my last match.”

They dropped what they were doing and returned to the Proatine Kingdom.

The entire Head Crusher guild, from Siegfried all the way down to the no-name members, were victims of the Genesis Guild, and the opportunity to fight the Genesis Guild wasn\'t something they would miss. On top of that, the fact that the Genesis Guild was on the brink of collapse made it even more worth it for them to join the battle.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to take revenge on their mortal nemesis, and ending them with their very own hands was the dream of the Head Crusher Guild members.

“I\'ve summoned our guild members,” Siegfried muttered with absolute certainty that the guild members were going to come to him.

—I am on my way!

—Let’s go!

—Hey! Don’t start the fight without me! I beg you!

Numerous messages from the guild members were being transmitted through the guild insignia.

“Should we start our preparing, too?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Michele replied with a nod and said, “I will come up with our strategy, so please focus on leading the Adventurers.”

“Sounds good.”

“Also, I will take care of the issue relating to the maid and the servant.”

“Really? Then, can I go out for a while to meet someone?”

“Huh?”

“You see, Chae Hyung-Seok has a lot of enemies,” Siegfried said with a smirk before he left his office.

***

Meanwhile, in a forest less frequented by people…

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

Chae Hyung-Seok received the items he requested Arcadia to purchase for him.

“This is really the last time, okay?”

“Yeah, I promised, remember?”

Chae Hyung-Seok headed deeper into the forest as soon as he received the item, and he started to arm himself with his new gear.

He felt more and more confident of his victory as he watched his stats go up whenever he armed himself with the new items, and he no longer looked like a beggar who had all of his items swindled.

After all, anyone who played a game would agree that they felt the most confident when their character was fully armed with the best gear possible, right?

Chae Hyung-Seok’s new gears were items he purchased using his entire fortune on top of the money he had borrowed from Ma Dong-Po, and these new items made him even more powerful than before.

This was probably the strongest he had been since he started playing this game, and he was now undisputedly the most powerful Buffer in the game. He was confident even against the Knights of Retribution of the Marchioni Empire.

However, the problem was that he couldn\'t exert his full strength alone, as that was the biggest weakness of a Buffer.

“I need to gather those bastards…”

Chae Hyung-Seok started thinking of a way to reel the Genesis Guild members in.

Most of the guild members had already left the guild, and it was now reduced to half of what it used to be thanks to the guild\'s mistakes. Well, everyone knew that it was him who had screwed up, but he refused to accept that fact.

His mistakes made him lose total control over his guild members, whom he used to boss around like slaves.

“I need to lure them in with irresistible rewards,” Chae Hyung-Seok muttered before he left the forest.

A few hours later…

“Hey, Min-Woo.”

“Hmm? Huh? Hyung!”

Chae Hyung-Seok discreetly went to a dungeon frequented by high-ranking players and found Min-Woo loitering around the entrance.

“Hyung! What happened to you? I couldn’t get hold of you—“ Min-Woo exclaimed.

“Shh. Let’s go somewhere quiet and talk,” Chae Hyung-Seok said as he motioned for him to follow.

“Hyung… Are you alright? I heard that the emperor is after you.”

“Things are really fucked up,” Chae Hyung-Seok grumbled in response before he bitterly smiled and added, “It’s a relief that the emperor removed the bounty.”

He was absolutely oblivious to the fact that the reason the emperor removed the bounty was due to Siegfried’s request, and he sincerely believed that the emperor had removed the bounty because it was too expensive to maintain.

“What are you going to do now, hyung?”

“I have to put my vengeance into motion.”

“But how? The guild members are no longer the same, and most of them left already…”

“I’ll give them money.”

“Money?”

“As incompetent as that bastard Han Tae-Sung is, he’s still a king, right?”

“Yeah?”

“His kingdom is small, but they probably have quite a lot of gold in their coffers. Remember when we raided those villages in the past? We reaped quite a handsome profit from them, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

“And I’m going to disband the guild and disburse the guild contribution gold in our guild treasury after we win this battle.”

The guild contribution was an automatic cut the guild took from their guild members to fund the activities of the guild, and the guild contribution amassed by the Genesis Guild was quite massive. Their gold reserve was astronomical as they boasted the most number of members among the top ten guilds on the continent.

The only reason Chae Hyung-Seok couldn\'t use that gold was due to the fact that it was impossible to use it for personal gain. The gold collected through guild contribution could only be used after a majority of guild members had agreed to its intended use.

The guild contribution was not something someone could manipulate as the system itself placed a lot of restrictions on it.

But what if the guild dissolved?

Ten percent of the gold was going to the guild master while the remaining ninety percent was going to be fairly distributed among the guild members, and this was what Chae Hyung-Seok was planning to use as a bargaining chip.

He was going to quit the game after getting his revenge anyway, so there was no point leaving the astronomical amount amassed by his guild.

“What do you think? The gold we will gain from pillaging that bastard’s kingdom on top of the guild contribution gold, I think each person can make a killing from this.”

“Yeah, that sounds more than enough. It’s not a small figure, after all… but what are you going to do about the emperor? I don’t think our guild members are going to quit the game afterward…”

Min-Woo’s concern was valid. Yes, the money from pillaging the Proatine Kingdom on top of the guild contribution gold was definitely enough motivation for the guild members to mobilize, but the Proatine Kingdom was still under the emperor’s protection.

Invading and pillaging such a kingdom was bound to bring forth the emperor’s wrath.

“I will be taking full responsibility,” Chae Hyung-Seok adamantly said before he continued, “Besides, I’m already wanted by the emperor, so what’s there to be afraid of? We can just tell the emperor that I forced you into it, right? It’s not like there’s only one or two people joining.

"I mean, even the emperor won’t be able to catch and punish all of us, right?”

“Well… I guess…”

“The emperor is still an NPC at the end of the day. We’ll make a killing from that bastard’s kingdom, and you can just say that I had threatened your life in the other world if he says anything. I’m sure you will get off scot-free.”

“Hmm… That’s indeed convincing…”

“Just help me out this once, Min-Woo. This will be the last.”

“Ugh…” Min-Woo groaned as he found it difficult to refuse. No, it was more accurate to say that he had no plans to refuse to begin with.

‘Kekeke! Dumbass! You’re already fucked, you fucking pathetic son of a bitch!’

Min-Woo was no longer Chae Hyung-Seok’s trusted aide. He was already on Ma Dong-Po’s side, and he had no plans of stopping Chae Hyung-Seok from seeking revenge.

“I’ll try to convince the guys. Well, I don’t think they’ll need much convincing since you’re offering such a generous reward.”

“Thank you.”

“When are we invading?”

“Three days later...”

“Three days…”

“I’ll tell you the specifics later, so just try to get the guys ready by then.”

“Okay, hyung.”

“See you in three days. I’ll call you.”

“Sure.”

Chae Hyung-Seok hurriedly left after finishing his discussion with Min-Woo.

Min-Woo watched him disappear into the distance before he grinned and said, “Oh? You’re planning to get fucked in three days? Kekeke!”

He immediately logged out.

Why?

He had to tell Ma Dong-Po about Chae Hyung-Seok’s plans!

***

The information Min-Woo had provided to Ma Dong-Po was relayed to the Thieves’ Guild until it reached Siegfried’s ears.

“Three days later?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Michele replied with a nod and continued, “Desire has proposed to reward those willing to join his revenge handsomely, and he seems to have prepared an excuse that would spare them from the emperor’s wrath, too.”

“Is it his death throes?”

“I believe so. Desire no longer has anything to fall back on, which convinces me that this is indeed his last hand.”

“Then we should give him a grand farewell, right?” Siegfried said with a smirk.

He was reminded of how things changing suddenly overnight was the result of small changes accumulating over time. It was just a year ago that he was on the run from the Genesis Guild, which was a formidable force back then.

But what about now?

The insignificant insect that the Genesis Guild had chased down, Siegfried, had screwed the plans of the mighty Genesis Guild’s guild master, Chae Hyung-Seok, again and again.

‘Make them weaker than you and beat them up,’ Siegfried recalled Deus’ teaching.

He took his teaching to heart and had been avoiding a full-frontal confrontation with the Genesis Guild, and his efforts over the years slowly gnawed at the Genesis Guild from all angles. Today, the Genesis Guild was no longer the once mighty enemy he couldn\'t even dream of opposing; he was now confident that he could defeat it.

‘So this is what the Debuff Master is all about…’ Siegfried realized that the Debuff Master did not only rely on his skills to make his enemies weaker.

Deus’ teachings were not limited to using his class skills to weaken his enemies and defeat them. His teachings required him to change how he saw this world and devote himself to formulating strategies that would weaken the enemy.

The Debuff Master was the result of the enlightenment of the Level 999 Hidden NPC, Deus, and this was precisely why the Debuff Master was strong.

“I have to crush them properly.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

“By the way, what happened to Jessie?”

“She was telling the truth.”

“Really?”

“Duke Decimato checked every nook and cranny of her conscience, and he found that she was indeed telling the truth.”

“Does that mean we can believe her?”

“Yes.”

“Who would’ve known a rat had a conscience?”

Siegfried was quite surprised but glad that Jessie was not lying.

“Then let’s do this, we—“

“We will use her to hit the Church of Osric hard?”

“Exactly! I will have to forgive her since she came clean about it, but I don’t think she can continue staying in the palace.”

“But Your Majesty is planning to task her with fooling the Church of Osric and Kyle before she is forgiven?”

“Bingo~”

“Then what about Kyle? What do you plan to do with him?”

“I’ll fuck him up real good,” Siegfried curtly said before adding, “Jessie had her reasons, and she came clean to us, right? But that guy’s different. That guy went as far as putting poison in my wife’s food.”

“A wise choice, Your Majesty.”

“Let Jessie go and keep an eye on her for now. Make sure you tell her to keep up her act.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I’ll come back to this issue after we crush the Genesis Guild.”

“I agree. We need to focus our forces on the threat right in front of us.”

“Threat? It’s an opportunity,” Siegfried said with a smirk before he said, “All right, I’ll go visit the Bavarian Workshop.”

“Huh? Why are you going to the Bavarian Workshop, Your Majesty?”

“I commissioned a new weapon.”

“Oh!”

“We have a big fight coming up, right? That’s probably the best time to test my new weapon out.”

“I will see you later then, Your Majesty.”

“All right.”

Siegfried left the Proatine Kingdom and headed to the Bavarian Workshop to collect his new weapon—the Vanquisher’s Grasp.